To my amazing agent, Holly Root, thank you for sticking with me, fighting for me, and never losing faith. I don’t think either of us ever anticipated just how many twists this publishing path would throw at us when we first teamed up, and there are so many times when I might’ve given up had you not been there, cheering me on. Thank you for your steadfast confidence in my writing, for your patience and compassion during the hard times, for your incomparable expertise and razor-sharp instincts, and for helping me keep my feet under me when things got overwhelming. A big thanks, too, to Alyssa Maltese and the team at Root Literary for being such a well-oiled machine of consummate pros.
To the inimitable Mindy Kaling, thank you for seeing something special in this story and for believing in it enough to lend your name to it. I never dreamed when I wrote a book with a throwaway Office joke in it that Kelly Kapoor herself would be the one to publish it.
To my editor, Megha Parekh, thank you for seeing exactly what I was trying to do with this book and for your enthusiasm in helping shape it into the best version of itself.
To Emma Reh, Sarah Shaw, Jarrod Taylor, Carmen Johnson, Chrissy Penido, Ashley Vanicek, Lily Choi, Kellie Osborne, and the entire team at Mindy’s Book Studio and Amazon Publishing, thank you for the countless hours of work you’ve put into this book and for how kind and supportive you’ve been during each step of the process.
To Megan Beatie and the team at Megan Beatie Communications, thank you for your enthusiasm for this book, and for your willingness to shout about it from the rooftops.
To Dave Andrews and the team at Brilliance Audio, thank you for your passion and vision in creating the best possible audio version of my book. And to the phenomenal cast who so perfectly embodied my characters: Michael Crouch, Natasha Tina Liu, Alaska Jackson, Brian Holden, Mark Sanderlin, Sarah Naughton, Scott Merriman, Marcus Stewart, and David De Vries, thank you for lending your incredible talents to this story, surpassing my wildest expectations.
To Heather Baror-Shapiro, thank you for championing this book literally around the world.
To my film agents, Jasmine Lake and Mirabel Michelson, thank you for seeing my characters as people you want to see brought to life. I hope we get to meet them someday.
To Sarah Brown, thank you for inexplicably saying yes all those years ago to an out-of-the-blue email from a stranger on the internet who was looking for a critique partner. I still have no idea what possessed either of us to venture out of our comfort zones and become friends, but I’m so glad we did. Thank you for the hundreds of hours spent talking about everything and nothing, for being undetectable to my introvert batteries, for reading nearly everything I’ve ever written and never getting sick of my stories, and for believing in me even when it became too hard to believe in myself.
To Ashley Herring Blake, MG Buehrlen, Paige Crutcher, Alisha Klapheke, and Myra McEntire, thank you for reading various iterations of this story and pushing me to make it better. You are all brilliant writers and friends, and your questions, suggestions, and insights were vital to making this book what it is today.
To all the friends who sat across from me in coffee shops, exchanged pages, passionately debated fictional scenarios, sent encouraging emails and texts, trekked through the woods, stayed up late laughing in hotel lounges, crammed into cars, and demolished innumerable orders of queso with me during the years I spent working toward publication: David Arnold, Carla Lafontaine, Erica Rodgers, Victoria Schwab, Ashley Schwartau, Court Stevens, and Kristin Tubb, a thousand thank-yous. I wouldn’t have gotten here without you.
To the SHC, thank you for being a light in the darkness. Some of the conversations in this book may feel a little familiar to you. Thank you for being a safe space to process and heal.
To my parents, siblings, and all the extended family who have supported me throughout my life, thank you for your love and for helping me grow into the person I am today.
To all those who have encouraged me over the years, who have seen value in me and my writing, who have offered words of affirmation and support, thank you. It’s amazing how even small acts of kindness can brighten a day.
To the readers who picked up this book, thank you for taking a chance on a debut author and for lending me your time, attention, and imagination for a little while.
To my family, thank you for never doubting that I could do this. Greg, thank you for building me desks and bookshelves, for watching the kids while I attended conferences and workshops and retreats, for spending countless evenings talking through character motivations and plot twists and backstories with me, and for always encouraging me to prioritize my writing even when I fretted that it might never go anywhere. You’ve been the best husband, partner, and friend I could ever have hoped for, and I am grateful for you every day.
And to my children, thank you for all the times you asked when my book launch would be, and whether there would be cake, as if eventually publishing a book was a foregone conclusion in your minds. Thank you for still wanting to spend time with me as you’ve grown up, for the huggie cuddles and laughter, and for sharing your passions and talents and worries and questions with me. It is a joy being your mom. I love you forever.